American Concept Cars & Ghia

I LOVE the Diablo - great design - especially the details -

the pitchfork emblem


and the KEY - too damn cool

 

love the wheel and the dash


grille

 

Ghia was really great back then. It was common to use the word "Ghiaesque" to describe similar designs.

 

Oops.

Sorry guys... Car #4 is the Ferrari 510 Superamerica Ghia, not the Gilda.

 

Kind of reminds me of the Alfa BAT cars, but their wings curl inward:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfa_Romeo_BAT

 

Wow............ just fricken wow............

I've been fortunate enough to meet Alex a couple of times. You can see his attention to details when you see his cars in person. Really nice, down to earth guy as well.

Thanks for the info on the Ghias, never knew about em............

 

Sign me up for a repop key and a pair of pitchforks. Anyone making them yet?

 

Everytime I get to thinking that the styling of my Dad's 1954 Venus is a bit odd, I see concept cars like these that had big money behind them (and those by Harley Earl). In comparison, the Venus' design was quite tame. Very intereseting time in automotive history to be sure!

Patrick

 

great read....this question has probably been asked a million times before ..do you think the custom builders took their styling cues from the designers or the other way round...bill hines could quite easily have put his name to a couple of those

 

Seems to me they were at least looking at each others work.

Here is Ghia's idea of a Dragster....


Something like that, with Piecrusts, Halibrands, and a Potvin blown V8 would look pretty cool going down the Track at the HAMB Drags...

 

dropped right on the floor its not a whole lot different than a streamliner...say something from the likes of Mickey thompson

 

Exner's best designs were some of his Ghia built show cars, in my view. At that time and even when Ford bought Ghia, they had a group of outstanding artisans/fabricators that could do just amazing work with the most basic tools. The execution of the details was very good for a one off vehicle.
Exner Jr worked at the Ford Design Center for many years, while I was there, a very talented designer as well.

 

Hey,

It's known that Virgel Exner, Harley Earl & Bill Mitchell all were big fans
of the Italian coachbuilder shows & studio work.
If you study any of the true early kustoms, before the 'bathtub acid-
era' of the early 60s, you see alot of dago and frog lines to their de-
signs. If you look honestly at Harry Westergard's work, you'll see
Figoni & Falaschi, Chapron & Franay.
Bill Mitchell's '63 Buick Riviera was said to be inspired by the Ghia &
Pininfarina bodied Ferrari & Lancias, as seen at the Italian shows.

Swankey Devils C.C.

"Meanwhile, back aboard the Tainted Pork"

 

great post ryan, i have a good friend who designs for opel - brian nesbitt... he worked on the pt before he left chrysler..

there were so many designers in the 50's and 60's whom really did not get the credit they deserved... i highly advise getting the gm autorama book as well as cars detroit never built and europe never built.. both out of print but loaded with fins and cool shapes of concept cars..

here is a fav of mine the ford nucleon.. nuke powered!

 

Just like asking...which came first the chicken or the egg.
Maybe they played off one another?? ie...evelution

Had the rare opportunity to see the Bortz collection,years ago at Cleveland's own Crawford Museum. Had to be close to the most amazing array of automobiles, on display in one place, that I have ever witnessed. (24hrs of LeMans might be first)
The sight of all those factory customs gave me goosebumbs. Will have to scan my pictures and post them sometime this weekend.
J.T.

 

Although (IMHO) not as cool as the '57 Chrysler Diablo, one of the most highly acclaimed Virgil Exner styling exercises ("dream cars" was the 1954 Dodge Firearrow ... it too was built by Carrozzeria Ghia in Italy.

The Firearrow toured the country with Chrysler's "New Worlds in Motion" show ... it generated an enthusiastic response back then ... just as it did when I saw it in May 1993 at the Bering Automotive Museum in Blackhawk (Danville), CA:







I'm a big fan of Exner (my father had several '57 & '58 Chrysler 300's) ... but at this event, the Exner / Ghia collaboration was a bit overshadowed by the presence of all three of the Giuseppe "Nuccio" Bertone designed Alfa Romeo "Berlinetta Aerodynamica Technicas" (B.A.T.s) ... the 1953 BAT 5, 1954 BAT 7, & 1955 BAT 9 were parked just a few feet away from the Firearrow:

 

Another cool Ghia pic.


Treestump & Hammer...

 

metalshapes, where are you finding all these pictures, they're awesome!

 

Here's the 1954 Desoto Adventurer ll
IIRC, this was Ghia. He had another Ghia car last time I walked through.
http://www.thesandiegocollection.com/cgi-bin/showroom/detail.cgi?id=2058

 

Alfa 1900 in the background?

 

Now that scrams salt flats to me, maybe Mickey T should have built Attempt 1 more like this!

 

Definitely Alfa Romeo ... and looks to be a 1900 series ... but from that pic (in the beginning stages of the metalwork), it's difficult to tell just what Alfa it is ... not even sure it's a Ghia coach ... maybe one of the other 1900 coachbuilders (Touring, Pinin Farina, Zagato, Castagna & Boano)?

But we're getting way OT here ... this is the HAMB ... not the AlfaBB!

Ciao!
Hemi32

 

Speaking of prototypes, I attended a show in Reliant Stadium this weekend (air conditioned!) and they had a few prototypes. This one is a '64 Dodge Charger owned by John O'Quinn. I also added a couple of pics of an unrestored '32 which I thought might be of interest.

Patrick

 

Interesting and previously unknown (to me) information.

 

Patrick,

FYI ... That's not a '32 ... it's a '28 or '29 Model A roadster (with a '32 grille shell ) ... but don't feel bad, I wouldn't know a '54 Venus if it was parked in my driveway (which you're more than welcome to do)

Hemi32

 

Thanks for the correction Hemi; I knew I was going to get it wrong. I usually photograph the ground placard, but didn't on this gem. I don't know how you guys can tell the years apart on these cars; guess it just takes years of study.

Patrick

 

Tom Tjaarda, who is now fairly well known as an automotive designer in Italy, was an American architecture grad and the son of John Tjaarda, the designer of the original Lincoln Zephyr prototype.

Tom emigrated to Italy around 1958 and got a job at Ghia. His best-known project there was probably the Pantera, but he brought his knowledge of the American car scene with him and that Dragster thing was something he brought to the party.

 

BTTT. Anyone able to repop the pitchfork stuff from the Diablo? Emblems and keys.